The Red Spot
by DragonRose888
Summary: Twilight Town...the average, quiet model village of the 1690's. Live by the Bible, and condemn the sinners. Witches are linched and burned at stake. Sora and Roxas could be next...unless someone can save them...RikuxSora, AxelxRoxas. KH AU.


_**Won: **__Well, it's been a while since I did anything Kingdom Hearts-y. I apologize for not updating. Rest assured, I'm getting to it, I promise. I really am. But in the mean time, this is a little Brain-Child I had a few weeks ago, after completing '__The Scarlet Letter__'. I liked it, but I wasn't crazy over the dialect the author used. Anyway, the book got me back into my Salem Witch Trails fanatic stage, so this came up. I do hope you like it. You might notice that Sora's a little more into character then my other two stories, (at least, I HOPE he is), and that Roxas is a little more involved in the story. We also see...CLOUD! Yes! And...well...I won't tell you who else. Just know that all the characters that are to be in this story haven't ALL been introduced, yet. See if you can find out who is and who isn't. On with the story!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own Kingdom Hearts, nor was I present for the witch trials of old. So the only thing here I own is my ideas and my name._

(/)(o)(\)

**The Red Spot**

A Wonnykins Production

(/)(o)(\)

There's a terrible feeling in the air. The wind blows the autumn leaves across the ground, around the feet of on lookers. Blows them around the feet hanging several inches off the scaffold platform. The head hangs low, the eyes white, the mouth open slightly. Death does not take kindly on the body of Larxanne, her face pale, her body rigid like a board. The dress she wore was like any other woman's in Twilight Village, except for one thing:

The sleeve of one arm had been ripped off viciously, showing a glistening red blemish. It was shaped like a lightning bolt, and it shimmered in the light of the torches on either side of the scaffold. Everyone seemed weary of the mark, staring at it in horror and disgust. A man on the platform stares out at the crowd, his long white hair intimidating, because he seemed younger then the age one's hair grew in white. His amber eyes flashed over the crowd gathered.

"People of Twilight!" He called, his voice loud, and yet, somehow soft, "Cast your eyes upon this wretch, this scorn of our good Earth!" He gestured to the poor Larxanne, swinging faintly in the breeze behind him. "Gaze upon her sinful body, and her mark of her master, the one we call Satan!"

Hushed murmurs washed through the crowd, everyone shuddering at the name. The man raised his hands for quiet. He was clothed in a long, black robe, with a white collar. The priest was immediately given silence to continue.

"And she has been punished." He murmured, and the wind carried his words, "She has joined her master in Hell, where all of her kind belong." A sneer made its way onto his face. "And where evil lives, we will conquer it! We will not have such monstrosity in our village!" A cheer rose up in the crowd.

In the very back, however, two boys did not join in the cheer. One was brunette, the other blond, like the poor woman hanging from the noose. Each, though, had the same deep, blue eyes that seemed to stare into one's very soul. The blond one, though, looked like he was neck deep in despair. The other one held his hand comfortingly.

"Perhaps she's better off this way..." The brunette said, softly, to his grieving twin.

"No one deserves what she got." The blond rasped, glaring angrily at the other. "No one. I saw her last night. That mark wasn't there."

The other boy sighed. "I believe you..."

"The reason you're so passive about it is because she wasn't YOUR mother." The blond hissed, suddenly, taking his hand back. "You never liked her."

The brunette bristled. "Roxas..."

"Don't get mad about it! You hated her!"

"That's enough."

They both turned, seeing a man with the brunette's unruly hair, but the blond's beautiful butter-yellow color in his locks. He, too, wore all black, but wore a large, red-colored 'A' pinned to his chest(1). He stared at the two boys with cold, yet sensitive, gray-colored eyes.

"Father." They both coursed. The man nodded back, and the smaller blond could no longer take the silence; he rushed into the man's arms, hugging him tightly.

"Why...?" The smaller one whimpered, "Why did they accuse mother?"  
And the older man had nothing to say. He only returned the embrace. "Some things are only known by God, Roxas." Roxas held in a sob. He was brave, and he could get through this...

Regardless of his wants, Roxas cried anyway.

(/)(o)(\)

The year is 1691. The society of today's world revolved around the Holy Book. The Bible was law, it was love, it was life. No one did anything without divine consolation. That was life in the fifteenth century.

And this was the time of the Witch Hunts.

Women, even men, who worshiped Satan, the enemy of God were cast out of this society and given terrible punishments, mostly death. Even if one wasn't a witch, one could be accused and found as such, anyway. Innocent men and women hung from the gallows each day, around the country. It was a sad phase.

Hunters brought poor, innocent people before a pastor to have them hung, and were paid, even if the accused was actually innocent. It was savage pleasure.

Unfortunately, Larxanne was one of the innocent. During the night, while she was outside, tending the garden, a hunter grabbed her, and dragged her to his home, where he beat her, and then branded her with the symbol that was now displayed on her arm. And her family suffered.

The man, Cloud, led Roxas, his son, home. Sora, the brunette, followed behind.

Though he and Roxas looked it, they weren't twins. Cloud had been married to Roxas's mother, Larxanne, for a long while. While she was pregnant, he had an affair with another woman, and, a month after Roxas was born, so was Sora. After being found out, Cloud and his mistress, Aerith, were both made to wear 'The Scarlet Letter'. Sora, however, wasn't forced to do this. The pastor decided that no child asked to be born into the world, and, so, Sora escaped this humiliation.

But only the letter-wearing was blown over.

Aerith, soon after the ruling, was accused of witch-hood, and she was burned to death. Five-year-old Sora was then sent to love with Cloud, Larxanne, and Roxas.

Larxanne resented the child. Here was the spawn of the woman that Cloud had committed adultery with. Here was a reminder that Cloud had only been _forced _to marry her, staring at her with those damn blue eyes. And, because he loved his mother, Roxas started to hate Sora, too.

The brunette never understood this. He used to wander out of the house late at night and sleep outside, with the animals. Even his own father looked at him like he was worthless, and Sora had never understood. He missed his real mother so much that it hurt.

It was on one evening that things for him changed. Larxanne had told him that he needed to help her make dinner, and, happily, he agreed. She never asked him to help her, before. So, he got up on a chair and helped her chop up vegetables.

"No!" She had said, finally, and the eight year old stopped his chopping, "That's ALL wrong!" She slammed the knife, the vegetables, and her foot, down. "Why in God's name can you do NOTHING right?!" She was, she admitted later, being rather harsh on the child, who had only picked up a knife once before then, and it had been on accident.

But as she had slammed down the instrument, she had misjudged that it would get stuck into her cutting board. The blade jumped, and sliced a neat ribbon on the boy's hand. The woman clapped her hands over her mouth at the blood that was dripping of Sora's hand. The boy himself looked down at it, surprised. For a moment, he just stared at it.

She had reached out to him, and he had snapped out of his trance, tears gathering in his eyes, and he ran.

Sora wasn't sure how far he had run, nor cared, at the time, before he stopped to rest. Blood was now covering his fingers, dripping onto the ground in thick, heavy drops that, in the cool air, steamed. He sat down, at the base of a tree, and cried. He cried because he was hurt, he cried because he missed his mother, he cried because Daddy, New Mummy, and Roxas didn't like him, and he cried because, now, he was hungry.

Larxanne, meanwhile, felt so disgusted with herself that she immediately sought out Cloud, telling him what she had done. He had dropped everything, (He worked as a blacksmith), and went out, looking for Sora. Roxas also felt guilty, because as the hours passed, Sora didn't come home, like he usually did. Cloud returned saying that there had been no sign of Sora. The night before, Sora had tried to sleep with a small stuffed toy that was Roxas's. Roxas argued with him, and they ended up ripping the small doll in half.

"I wish you would go die!" The blond had spat.

And that night, Sora slept outside again.

But this night was different. This night, Sora was lost, and Larxanne was frantic to find him, along with Cloud. There was talk in the house, while she was being comforted by different village women, that the child might be killed by wild animals, or savages. The talk scared Roxas, made him feel like the whole ordeal was all his fault.

That night, the blond had knelt by his bed and prayed for half an hour, the fixed toy beside him when he finally crawled into bed. He prayed to God that Sora would come home, and that he was very sorry he had said such cruel things to the boy.

It was mid-afternoon the next day when Sora turned up. A man from the village had been out chopping wood, and found the boy sleeping with a large, white cat. The cat left, of course, and the man had picked up the boy, hurrying him home.

After that, things changed. Larxanne behaved more kindly to the child, and Cloud payed him more attention. Roxas became Sora's very best friend.

Even if the others in the society frowned upon him for who he was, at least the brunette had family.

But, now, even that was breaking apart.

Larxanne being hanged had devastated them all, and brought back memories that they'd rather not have again. Cloud now took time to comfort Roxas, while Sora, who Roxas was not speaking to, began to spend time outside, again. Those around them began to whisper.

"The poor Strifes..." They whispered, as the brunette wandered past, "See how lonely that one is? His father is turning on him again..."  
Sora believed that this wasn't the case. He'd never been a real part of the family, and Larxanne, while caring towards him, had never been, to him, his mother. He didn't feel the sort of remorse that Roxas did, because he'd only felt it when his own mother died in front of his eyes. Yes, he shed tears over Larxanne, but only a few. What remained was the fact that the Strife family had never been his to call his own, and that if they wanted to mourn, he was better left out.

In actuality, he didn't mind going off by himself. He didn't like being around Roxas when he got upset, because, usually, the blond took it out on him. And Cloud...Sora never felt comfortable with his father period. Now wasn't a good time to hang around while his father mourned his wife's death.

Yet, in spite of the fact that he was passive about leaving the house for a while, the nervous stares and harsh murmurs of those who looked down on him made him want to turn back. It was times like these he hated most: Where home nor the outside world was safe or loving.

The brunette found himself sitting at the base of a tree, a few minutes later. The forest started on a hill, over looking the village, and the clearing where the gallows and the scaffold sat. Larxanne's body had been removed, finally, to allow her to be buried. He stared at that spot where she had swayed in the breeze for a long time.

"It's a sad thing, the hanging of someone dear to you, isn't it?"

The voice startled him, and he looked behind him. Leaning on another tree further into the forest was a tall, lanky boy. He had cat-like green eyes and fiery-red hair that defied gravity. Under his eyes were painted two little black diamonds. He was a strange boy, and Sora felt strange around him, as though this wasn't just a boy.

"What? Never seen a red-head before?" The taller one asked, snickering.

The brunette frowned. "There's a girl in town-"

"All right, maybe that was the wrong question." The red-head rolled his eyes. "Relax, kid. I'm not going to bite you, you know." Something in the tone of his voice finally relaxed Sora. "There, see? Not so bad, am I?" He walked over, looking out at the gallows. "Your mother was a pretty woman."

"She wasn't my mother." He said, rather bluntly. "My mother's been han-dead." He nearly slipped, but the stranger caught it anyway.

A sad smirk crossed his features. "So, both of your mother's are witches, eh?" The brunette glared at him. "Take it easy; in these times, you can be accused of being a witch even if you're a priest." He snorted as he said this. "This must be hard for you, having to do this all over a second time, huh?"

"Not really." Sora looked back at the now empty gallows, the nooses hanging in the wind, blowing westward. "I guess I got used to it..." He was quiet, then, and the strange boy allowed him this peace for a small amount of time before starting up again.

"I bet you don't believe in witches."

Sora shrugged. "I haven't seen any proof, other then what the Hunters are putting on people."

A thump alerted him that the boy had sat beside him, though he didn't turn his head. The stranger gave him the creeps, for some reason.

"I do."

The voice was close in his ear. Too close.

"How's that hand of yours?"

Blue eyes went wide, and Sora covered the offending mark with his other hand, whipping around and glaring at the boy. But the red-head had his attention, and there was something...sinister...about his gaze...

"You're cute." The boy murmured, still smirking in a shark-like fashion. "I'd watch out if I were you. Witches are known to ensnare the unwary."

"Please." The brunette finally retorted. "It's all a bunch of...of..."

"I get it." The red-head stood. "But I'm sure you'll change your mind sooner or later..."

Sora rolled his eyes, and turned away.

"...Sora."

At the sound of his name, the smaller turned again, but the red-head was gone. Startled, he got to his feet, but there was no trace of the strange boy anywhere.

Shaken and disturbed, Sora finally decided to head home. As he reached the village outskirts, a cardinal flew into the path, and then disappeared. It was a warning, and the boy quickened his pace.

Despite the sobbing of Roxas in the next room, and the absence of supper, Sora spent the night in his bed for once.

(/)(o)(\)

The memorial service for Larxanne was short, and not very many people came. Her poor-man's coffin was thrown into her grave bodily, and angered Roxas so much that he had to be restrained by, not only Sora and Cloud, but by his friends, Hayner, Pence, and Olette. Her head stone only had her name, her birth date, and her death date. The pastor had wanted to put on a warning of witchcraft on the stone as well, but the Strifes refused.

Roxas was the last to remain at the new grave. Sora stayed with him.

Even an hour later, as it started to rain, they stayed.

"We should get home, Roxas." The brunette finally suggested, teeth chattering from being so cold.

The blond only shook his head. "You can go if you want. I know she didn't mean much to you." He had no idea how much words like that hurt his half-brother, but at the moment, he didn't care. Sora could have been shot with a musket behind him, and Roxas wouldn't have blinked.

Taking the hint that Roxas wanted to be alone, finally, Sora trudged back home.

For another hour, Roxas sat at the grave. He didn't cry; there weren't any tears left. He only sat there.

"If you stay out here any longer, you'll be the next one in a hole."

The blond didn't react to the new voice. Foot steps approached him, and suddenly, the rain wasn't hitting him anymore. He turned his eyes skyward, seeing the underside of a coat above him. The blue eyes then caught a flash of silver-colored hair.

"Pastor Xemnas..." He murmured, looking back at the tomb-stone again. "I wish to be alone."

There was a chuckle. Not Xemnas's usual deep and strange one. This one seemed younger, more free.

"Pastor? Well, that's new." The other person crouched down bedside the grieving Roxas, who turned to look at him.

It may have seemed like Xemnas, but this boy was much younger. He was perhaps a couple years older then Roxas himself, with silver hair and ocean-green eyes. They were the things that caught his attention.

"...Who are you?"

"That's not important. What is, though," The new boy draped his coat around Roxas's shoulders, "is that while you're mourning the loss of your mother, your mother is mourning because you're going to catch pneumonia and join her."

Roxas was stunned, and then appalled. "H-How dare you!"

"It's the truth. Your cheeks are already getting flushed." A smile graced the lips of this strange boy. "You ought to go home, Roxas. Your family is worried about you."

Roxas snorted, getting to his feet and stomping off. He then realized something, and turned back. "How did you know-?"

But the boy was gone.

"...My name..." The blond's eyes darted around, but there was nothing to even suggest that the boy with the silver hair had been there at all. Just his coat. Even as he thought of this, a gust of wind came strong, and tore the coat out of his hands. He raced after it for a moment, but he soon lost sight of the coat, and found himself feet from home. As he walked in, a white cat streaked out from under one of the black berry hedges that Sora liked to grow.

Lightning struck, and the cat disappeared.

(/)(o)(\)

Dinner was silent. None of the three males spoke, that night. The candles flickered, with the sky growing dark outside. Half of the darkness was due to night approaching, but a storm was brewing. Sora, personally, didn't have a problem with them, but, always the opposite, Roxas was terrified. He never would admit it, but he would cover his head and bury himself under his bed covers when it stormed. And on the coast, it stormed often, and badly.

Cloud was the more level headed of the three, but this was to be expected, since he was the father of the household. However, Roxas appeared to have gotten the storm-fearing from him. Cloud flinched visibly during a storm; and the blond man was never known to do so at any other time.

Therefore, when rain started to hit the glass of the windows, Roxas moaned, shaking, and, as predicted, Cloud flinched as the first clap of thunder sounded.

The brunette cleaned up the table without being asked. While he scrubbed at them in the wash basin, more rain splattered harshly against the kitchen window in front of him. He looked up, halfway through, pausing to watch the storm, and caught his reflection in the glass from the candle light behind him. He found himself staring at this, and then saw a distinct white shape.  
Focusing his vision on the outside of the house, the blue-eyed boy saw a boy standing far away, not seeming to care that a storm was raging around him. His silver hair blew faintly in the breeze.

"Awful night to be outside." The brunette muttered to himself. He started to return to the dishes when the boy outside caught his eye again. He dropped the plate, letting it clatter into the basin, splashing his clothes.

_That boy was looking _**right **_at him...  
_A smirk flashed across the silver-haired boy's face. Sora shook his head, as if to clear the image, but the boy remained. _'He can't have heard me...'  
_He blinked, and, in that split second, the strange boy outside vanished in a flash of lightning.

In that moment, Sora started to fear storms, too.

(/)(o)(\)

"Ooohhh..."  
From the bed over, Roxas was hiding under his sheets, moaning out loud each time lightning struck. Rain was falling heavier by the second, it seemed. At one point, Cloud had had to bunch up a cloth and stick it on the window sill, to keep out the water and to prevent a draft in the boys' room.

"I think perhaps it's your mother." The man had said, softly, sitting with Roxas. "I think she's showing her disapproval of how the other people accused her."

This wasn't exactly a stupid thought. Sora could recall Larxanne as loving to sit out in the shelter of a tree and watch lightning as it struck. She found a sort of beauty in it, and that was one thing he and her had had in common, while she was alive. So, as childish a comfort as it was, the brunette pretended that the storm was Larxanne's doing, and he began to forget the creepy boy from outside the window.

Another groan came from Roxas's bed, and Sora couldn't stand it any longer.

"Go to sleep already." He hissed, rolling over to face the blond.

The other boy faced him soon after he said this. "Lemme alone, Sora."

"No, I'm not leaving you alone. You've been whimpering and groaning all day. If you're miserable, do yourself a favor and go to sleep. Maybe it'll help you."

A glare was sent his way. "You just don't understand."

"I don't?" Sora glared back. "I lost my mother before you did. You think I don't understand?"

"W-well..." The blond blushed, flustered. "You've never been afraid of storms, like me!"

There was a moment of silence.

"...Did you see anyone...weird...today?" The brunette asked in a hushed voice. More silence proceeded his question.

A shuffle in the bed next to him indicated that Roxas was squirming. "...Yeah...I did...but how did you know?"

Sora sighed shakily. "I saw a couple of them today...It was strange. I've never seen them before, but they just...showed up. And then vanished."

Roxas shivered, pulling the covers up over his shoulders. "...I saw a boy with silver hair after you left the graveyard..." He murmured. "He gave me his coat and then sort of...left. I didn't even see him leave. Then the wind blew his coat away..."

"You better hope he's not coming back for it then." Sora warned. "I saw someone like that while I was cleaning up dinner. He was outside in the rain, and I said something. I don't think even you or Cloud heard it, but, Roxas, he looked at me as if he did, that boy. And he grinned at me. Then he...just disappeared."

Another shiver. "Did he have on a coat?"

"...I don't recall."

"I hope he's not looking for it...I feel kind of bad, because I snapped at him, earlier, but I don't want to have to tell him that I lost his coat." Roxas frowned, then. "You said you saw a couple. Who else?"  
"A boy with red hair. He met up with me yesterday." Sora went on to describe the boy and how they had talked about witches. He also brought up the appearance of the cardinal afterwards.

"Odd." Roxas agreed. "I don't like them already. Something's weird about them..."

"Agreed." Sora said, grimly. "...Do you think they're...I don't know...witches?"

Silence.

Sora was surprised when Roxas crawled into his bed, beside him.

"Do you mind...?"

The brunette was quiet, then sighed. "Not at all."

They didn't move for the rest of the night.

(/)(o)(\)

Morning came later then they remembered, before. The sun blazed a blood red, and the boys were reminded of that little sailor's analogy; Red sky in morning, sailor take warning. The Strife boys certainly felt warned, if anything.

Having gotten no sleep at all, the previous night, they trudged downstairs, feet heavy and eyelids equally so. They felt an ounce in comfort that Cloud did not appear as awake as usual, either, but only an ounce.

It was during breakfast that the door was knocked upon. Grumbling about how people had no sense, Cloud got up to answer it. Sora and Roxas exchanged looks wearily and tried, half-heartedly, to finish their breakfast.

After a few moments, Cloud returned, looking more tired and weak then ever. Roxas immediately asked what was troubling him.

"...Pastor Xemnas..." The father groaned, "Was just here...he believes that Larxanne has 'infected' others."

Sora made a disgusted face. "From what I heard, Witchcraft isn't a disease..."

"Not that mum ever practiced it, of course." Roxas cut in, harshly. "That's all he wanted?"

Cloud put his head in his hands. "...Be prepared, you two." He murmured. "Be prepared..."

He couldn't have been more right.

(/)(o)(\)

Sora, by now, being what he was, was used to the stares and the whispers behind his back when he walked through town. He was used to people shaking their heads when they thought he wasn't looking, and the comments about his creation.

What he was not used to, though, were the leers.

He shivered, passing a pair of older men, who glared at him and resumed their talk. This action towards him was new. Brand new. And it only meant one thing: Someone had shared their thoughts on him; that he was 'following in the devil's footsteps'. He knew they were wrong, but it made him feel no better about the possibility of ending up like his late mother and even more recent step-mother.

The end of a rope was no place for him to be.

After collecting what he needed from a shop, (The prices were high for only him, it seemed), the brunette headed back to the house. Somewhere along the way, though, he found himself drawn to that same hill where he had met the strange red-headed boy just a couple of days ago. He had a bad feeling about it, but it seemed that his body did not.

The crisp air whipped into his clothes as he stood there, on the hill, looking down upon the gallows as he had done before. And, just as before, another presence came forward.

It was not the red-head again. It was a face Sora had seen all his life, though not to his pleasure. Pastor Xemnas had never rubbed the boy the right the way. But here he came, dressed in his black robes and white collar, smirking at Sora the entire time he walked.

Before long, they stood side by side, in silence. Neither spoke for quite a while. Sora continued to stare at the nooses, and the priest looked out to sea.

"...It's a strange day to be lingering up here..." The older man said, softly.

Sora shrugged. "It doesn't bother me." He murmured in return.

"I see." A pause. "Do you miss her?"

Sora narrowed his eyes. He knew most people were being polite in asking him this, but Xemnas spat it out like it was poison in his mouth. "Of course."

The silver-haired man only smirked wider. "Yes, and what a wonderful teacher she was, eh?"

"..." The brunette looked at the pastor out of the corner of his eye quizzically.

"You had to learn somewhere."

It still did not strike Sora as to what he was referring to. "She was a good cook, I suppose." He said, finally. He was happy to see the smirk drop from the man's face.

"You're following her down the wrong road, Sora." He said, gravely.

The brunette glared. "What road?" He said, finally biting.

"You know quite well which one."

"No, I don't. So either clarify yourself, _sir_, or leave me alone."

The silence was deafening, and they stared at each other for quite some time before Xemnas leaned over, an inch from Sora's face.

"It is no secret," He hissed, "That not one, but BOTH of your mothers were sinners, boy. Both the henchmen of the devil. And they cursed your father. You are worth no more then the slime on a rock." He spat, venomously. "You're already outcast, boy. Don't follow your mothers."

And Sora punched him.

Stumbling, the man fell back, into a tree. He glared at the brunette, holding his cheek tenderly. It was already beginning to bruise. "How DARE you!"

"Don't talk about my mother OR Larxanne that way." Sora growled, advancing. "You believe in witch craft because you need someone to place the blame on for bad things you can't explain. I won't be your next scapegoat, _sir_, and you can count on that." The brunette took up his basket and stormed home.

Pastor Xemnas glared for a moment, then smirked. "We'll see about that, Sora...We'll see about that..."

(/)(o)(\)

_(1)- This is '__The Scarlet Letter__' reference I planned on using. If you had sex outside of your marriage, and you were found out, you were tried in a court and then even sentenced to spend months in prison for it. When you walked free, you had to wear a pinned-on red 'A' all the time. This alienated the guilty person from society. The 'A' stood as a symbol of sin, and people tended to avoid the wearer. Thus, Cloud wears the letter, because of his betrayal to Larxanne. Sora's an outcast simply due to the fact that he was a product of adultry._

_**Won: **__So, how was it? Like it? Love it? Hate it? I'd like to know, seeing as this is one of the first KH fictions I've written that's HALFWAY decent. I honestly don't like the way I wrote the others. Perhaps I can improve on them through later chapters, who knows..._

_Oh! And did anyone guess who the mysterious men were? I bet you all did. It's not that hard, no? And how about Cloud marrying and...-shudder-...having kids with Larxanne? I bet you all hate me for that, but you'll see what's so good about it, later. Trust me._

_Reviews make me squee. So click and make me squee._


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